Experts Inch Closer To 'Star In Jar' Reactor

Scientists have taken a big step towards developing a ‘star in a jar’ nuclear fusion reactor that can provide Earth with limitless clean energy in the same manner as the Sun and other stars. The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device currently operated by Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany is on track and working as planned, experts said. The system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it was first fired up earlier this year. A fusion reactor works by fusing the nuclei of lighter atoms into heavier atoms. The process releases massive amounts of energy and produces no radioactive waste. The ‘fuel’ used in a fusion reactor is simple hydrogen, which can be extracted from water. However, to achieve fusion, scientists must generated enormously high temperatures to heat the hydrogen into a plasma state, ‘Live Science’, reported. That is where the W7-X stellerator design comes in. the device confines the plasma within magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils cooled down to near zero. The plasma never comes into contact with the walls of the containment chamber.